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Glasgow City Mission

We are now in our third season working with Glasgow City Mission as one of our community partners and we‘re proud to have donated over £87,000 in support of projects which have made a huge difference to the lives of homeless people in our city.

In season 2015/16 we were able to donate enough to keep Glasgow City Mission’s Winter Night Shelter open for an extra month in 2016 and 2017 and advocacy work for service users, while in 2017 we paid for 17,000 hot meals for the Evening Drop-In service, which feeds the city’s homeless and vulnerable.

This season, we will build on that legacy by supporting Glasgow City Mission’s Housing First scheme. Proceeds from this season’s Big Ibrox Sleep Outs, which are being sponsored by 32Red, will be split three ways between Glasgow City Mission, our other community partner The Simon Community and the Foundation’s work locally.

Housing First

Glasgow City Mission is taking radical steps to address the growing problem of homelessness.

The Mission is purchasing 10 flats across the city and will use them to house some of the most vulnerable and hardest to reach people who have been caught up in the destructive cycle of homelessness. The Foundation will raise funds to decorate and furnish these flats via our Big Ibrox Sleep Out events this season.

Currently people need to progress through different types of accommodation before they are deemed suitable and trustworthy to have their own permanent tenancy but Housing First will see people receive their house first and then be given the necessary wraparound support to sustain the tenancy.

Crucially, this support is flexible and tailored to the needs of the individual, not a one-size-fits-all approach. Having the stability of a home that is yours means people take a sense of ownership of it and are less likely to return to the streets.

About Glasgow City Mission

Glasgow City Mission is the world’s first City Mission and has been helping vulnerable adults and children by fighting against poverty and disadvantage since 1826.

The charity works with adults and children who are often leading chaotic or difficult lives to help them break free from their oppressive situations which may involve homelessness, addiction, poverty, family breakdown, prostitution or emotional issues.

Gary spent a large part of his childhood in the care system, rarely in a stable happy environment. As a teenager he drifted in to homelessness and was rough sleeping for years, in and out of prison and sometimes having a bed on a friend’s sofa, injecting drugs.

Gary began receiving support from the City Ambition Network (CAN) – a partnership between Glasgow City Mission, Simon Community Scotland, Marie Trust, Turning Point Scotland and the Health & Social Care Partnership – when he was 29 by which time he had been rough sleeping for the previous 7 or 8 years. He had no live benefit claim and had not even presented as being homeless.

In the past two years he has worked with his CAN keyworker and linked in with homelessness health services. He has also been accommodated in a series of emergency accommodations services ranging from bed and breakfasts to supported projects but every time, either after a few days or a few months, this would break down. Every service has a set of rules and sooner or later Gary would be asked to leave – sometimes for not returning at night or even for not engaging with the service’s staff.

Gary is now rough sleeping again and doesn't want to go back to another service only for it to break down and clearly the current options do not work. He wants a place of his own.